Donald Trump suggested in a news conference Thursday that he is open to curbing access to abortion pills through federal regulations, declining to rule out a sweeping move that some antiabortion allies have advocated.<\/p>\n
Trump has previously praised a Supreme Court ruling that maintained access to the key abortion drug mifepristone, saying, \u201cI agree with their decision to have done that, and I will not block it.\u201d But the GOP presidential nominee muddled his position at Thursday\u2019s news conference at his Mar-a-Lago Club.<\/p>\n
A reporter noted that there are ways the federal government could restrict abortion besides a national ban and asked if Trump would direct his Food and Drug Administration to \u201crevoke access\u201d to mifepristone. Trump did not reject the idea.<\/p>\n
\u201cSure, you could, you could do things that will be, would, would supplement,\u201d the GOP presidential nominee said. \u201cAbsolutely. \u2026 But you have to be able to have a vote, and all I want to do is give everybody a vote.\u201d (Trump has defended his appointments of Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade by saying that the decision allowed states and voters to weigh in on the issue.)<\/p>\n
Mifepristone is part of a two-drug regimen to end a pregnancy through the first 10 weeks of gestation. Most abortions in the United States are now carried out via medication, and curbing access to mifepristone would be hugely consequential.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s comments on Thursday could undercut his efforts to distance himself from the hardest-line abortion opponents in his party. He previously rebuffed activists\u2019 pressure to campaign on a national restriction, framing it as a states\u2019 issue, and supported a new GOP platform that angered some antiabortion activists. Trump\u2019s campaign did not immediately respond to a request to clarify his position on mifepristone. Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019s campaign has made abortion access a central campaign issue and immediately highlighted Trump\u2019s Thursday comments.<\/p>\n
Some antiabortion activists have long argued that the federal government\u2019s decades-ago approval of mifepristone was flawed and should be revoked, but such a move would face legal hurdles. Antiabortion groups also say the FDA could place restrictions on the medication \u2014 for instance, by reinstating a requirement that patients obtain them in person rather than through the mail.<\/p>\n
Trump has sent mixed signals on abortion policy throughout his campaign. During his debate this summer with President Joe Biden, Trump was asked if he would \u201cblock abortion medication.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst of all, the Supreme Court just approved the abortion pill. And I agree with their decision to have done that, and I will not block it,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
The court had actually declined to limit access, siding with the Biden administration and manufacturer of mifepristone on the grounds that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue over the issue.<\/p>\n
In his Thursday news conference, Trump continued his response to the mifepristone question by saying, \u201cThere are many things on a humane basis that you can do outside of that, but you also have to give a vote, and the people are going to have to decide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump, a Florida resident, also declined to say how he would vote on a ballot measure that seeks to override the state\u2019s ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the abortion issue has been very much tempered down,\u201d he said. \u201cI answered, I think, very well in the debate, and it seems to be much less of an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Scherer and Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Donald Trump suggested in a news conference Thursday that he is open to curbing access to abortion pills through federal regulations, declining to rule out a sweeping move that some antiabortion allies have advocated. Trump has previously praised a Supreme Court ruling that maintained access to the key abortion drug mifepristone, saying, \u201cI agree with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7552,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstriumphs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}